Personal care compositions comprising hydrophobically modified cationic polymers

Abstract

The invention provides personal care/personal wash compositions comprising hydrophobically modified cationic polymers which enhance deposition of benefit agent.

1. A personal wash (care) liquid, cream or lotion composition comprising:
 (a) 0.5 to 85% by wt. of a cleansing surfactant; 
 (b) 0.1 to 10% by wt. of an optical modifying benefit agent; 
 (c) 0.01 to 5% by wt. of a polymer having structure
   (-A-) i (-B-) j (-C-) k   
 
 wherein co-monomer A is a cationic repeating unit possessing one or more cationic charge(s) when measured at pH 4 to 10; 
 wherein co-monomer B is a water insoluble repeating unit comprising at least one hydrophobic portion which is part of the co-monomer backbone which hydrophobic portion is defined as comprising 3 to 20 C 1  to C 3  alkylene groups and from 1 to 3 C 1  to C 3 , alkyl groups and/or a pendant attached to the backbone such that equivalent alkane number of pendent group is >4 and wherein B is selected from the group consisting of n-dodecyl methacrylamide (DMA), n-(n-octadecylacrylamide) (ODA), n-tert-octylacrylamide (tOA) and mixtures thereof; 
 wherein co-monomer C is a repeating unit selected to modify solubility of the overall polymer; 
 wherein i, j, and k represent number of times each respective monomer is repeated in the polymer chain, with the proviso that ratio of j/i is from 0.01 to 0.4 and ratio of k/i is from 0.0 to 0.5; and 
 wherein cationic charge density of co-monomer A is >3 meq/g; and/or charge density of entire polymer >2. 
 
     
     
       2. A composition according to  claim 1 , wherein the co-monomer B of the polymer is chosen to have equivalent alkaline carbon number (EACN) of >8. 
     
     
       3. A composition according to  claim 1 , in which the repeating unit co-monomer C is used to increase the water solubility of the resulting polymer. 
     
     
       4. A composition according to  claim 1 , in which the sum of indices i, j, and k of the polymer corresponds to a polymer whose molecular weight is in the range of 10,000 to 2,000,000. 
     
     
       5. A composition according to  claim 1 , in which the nature of co-monomer A of the polymer and the ratio of index i to the sum of i plus j plus k corresponds to a polymer cationic charge density of at least 2.5 milli-equivalents of charge per gram of polymer. 
     
     
       6. A composition according to  claim 1 , in which the nature of co-monomer B of the polymer and the ratio of index j to the sum of indices i plus j plus k corresponds to a polymer which retains a water solubility in excess of 0.1%. 
     
     
       7. A composition according to  claim 1 , wherein the benefit agent is a solid particulate substance. 
     
     
       8. A personal wash composition according to  claim 1 , in which the ratio in the polymer of k/i is effectively zero.